Selfish Van Persie riles Netherlands team-mates

The Manchester United star was criticised by members of the Oranje setup for shooting from a narrow angle instead of squaring the ball to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar when 1-0 down

Robin van Persie faced criticism from members of the Netherlands setup after shooting instead of passing to Klaas-Jan Huntelaar when 1-0 down to Kazakhstan.

Guus Hiddink's side fell behind to Renat Abdulin's first-half header though they would go on to triumph 3-1 at the Amsterdam Arena, not before tensions boiled over between Van Persie and the Schalke frontman.

The Manchester United striker, captain of Hiddink's Oranje, maintained that he was well within his rights to shoot from the narrow angle, though many figures around the national team disagreed.

Van Persie told NOS: "In that position I was right to shoot. The reaction from Huntelaar was a bit exaggerated. Anyway, it's normal. He wants to score and that's what we all want."

Huntelaar, who would later score the equaliser felt aggrieved though, telling Goal: "If that ball had come to me, I could have ran it in to the goal. I was focussed on that chance and wanted to score as soon as possible.

"If you must have the ball, you might get upset sometimes. That happens in a game. But we've won. That's most important."

Netherlands left it late to secure all three points and were helped by Baurzhan Dzholchiyev's red card on the 64th minute. From there Ibrahim Afellay and Van Persie would score in the final eight minutes to secure the national team's first win in Group A.

Mark van Bommel, former captain of the Oranje added: "Van Persie is the captain, he should solve these problems in the dressing room.

"It's not good what Robin does but we must not exaggerate. From that corner, Van Persie should just shoot on target."